Gazette today turns the spotlight on UBP member for Southampton West Mr.

David Dodwell.

Mr. David Dodwell, 45-year-old owner of two luxury hotels and a solid member of official boards, is perhaps an unlikely soca fan.

But listen at the window of his Southampton bachelor pad -- he is recently divorced -- and that pulsing West Indian sound is what you'll hear.

If he's at home, that is, because this high-profile hotelier-turned-politician has a lot on his plate.

This month his presidency of the Bermuda Hotel Association comes to an end.

And as he points out, he may not be re-appointed to all of those Government bodies, which range from the Board of Immigration to the Labour Advisory Council.

But he will still be running his Reefs hotel in Southampton and his beach club on the island of Nevis. And he will no doubt continue to be prominent in the Caribbean Hotel Association.

However, Mr. Dodwell is sure he will find room for his new role as an MP. "I intend to adjust my schedule,'' he says. Stepping down from the BHA, for one, will make a major change.

Other hats will remain firmly on his head, though. "I love my involvement in the community,'' he says. "I'm a people person and love to be with people.

"I don't need to lead anything. I enjoy listening and the team aspect of the things that I do.

"I believe in consultation and working with other people, although I'm an entrepreneur.'' His career leanings, he believes, come more from his grandfather -- the founder of the store that became the MarketPlace -- than his banker father.

"My grandfather was the one from whom it is said I obtained my desire to enter the hospitality industry. It's a similar kind of thing, about service to people.'' His father's family has been in Bermuda for two generations. His mother was born in Wales.

After Saltus Grammar School and Cornell University, New York, Mr. Dodwell started work as office and accounts manager at Cambridge Beaches.

The next year, 1972, he found himself the 24-year-old manager of The Reefs, thrown into the deep end and learning from his mistakes. He bought the place in 1981.

He'd come a long way from the age of 14, when he got a summer job in the storeroom of Elbow Beach.

"I always kind of knew what I wanted to do. That job meant loading trucks, issuing supplies and working in the depths of that hotel.

"How it encouraged me to get involved in the business I don't know, but I enjoyed the variety and the opportunity to meet all sorts of people.'' Highlights of his career, he feels, are the two terms he served on controversial inquiries into pay and conditions in hotels.

He was also delighted to be recognised by his peers as 1992's Bermuda hotelier of the year.

Outside his work, he is obviously proud of his four children, whose ages range from five to 17 -- though a budding hotelier has yet to emerge among them.

His spare-time activities include thriller novels, scanning magazines for the latest information and playing tennis.

Cooking, despite his trade, does not appeal to him. He prefers to play the hotel guest and sample other host's specialities.

And then, of course, there's the soca music -- part of a wider love for all things Caribbean.

It is a sign, perhaps, that there is more to Mr. Dodwell than meets the eye.

Certainly, he is anxious not to be dismissed by those who regard him as a symbol of the Island's privileged class.

"Give me a chance,'' he says to such sceptics. "Let me into your home and allow me to meet you and speak to you. Give me a fair shake.

"I don't view myself as a `creature of the establishment'.

"I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I worked for what I've got and I'm not embarrassed to say it.' ' Mr. David Dodwell.